Title: Ecological Impacts of Climate Change on Children and Women

Abstract:

Children and women are very important entities of our society so their health, growth, and nourishment need to be looked after and handled with proper care to protect them from the ripple effects of climate change influencing everything from air quality to water contamination and food safety. Children and women are highly vulnerable to physical trauma, stress, drowning, displacement, and infectious diseases due to extreme weather and climate events posing serious threats to their health and welfare as climate change has the potential to influence the earth's biological systems with rampant vector-borne, water-borne and food-borne diseases. Children are more vulnerable than adults in disaster situations because they rely on others to care for them and also need specialized medical care during and after disasters because of their size and their differences in bodily systems, immunity, and psychology. Children are affected more by climate change than adults do as children breathe, eat, and drink more for their size compared to adults as children’s body systems are still developing, spend more time outdoors, play low to the ground, and put objects in their mouths increasing their exposure to harmful chemicals and pollutants. Besides children, women are more vulnerable than men to climate change as women make up the majority of the world’s poor and are more dependent than men on natural resources for their livelihoods and survival because of their responsibility to secure water, food, and energy for cooking and heating. In times of food shortage, their health is more likely to suffer than their male counterparts because women are often the first to reduce how much they eat sacrificing their diets for other family members. Early childbearing, high fertility, and the malnourishment are associated with poor health increasing women's vulnerability to spread of diseases and infections to adapt to climate change.

Biography:

Ravi Sharma studied at St. Vincent's School Agra (1954-1958 passed V Std.), M.D. Jain Inter College, Agra (1958-1963 did High School); St. John's College, Agra (1963-1967 passed Inter (1965), B.Sc. (1967)); Agra College, Agra (1967-1969 (Passed MSc Botany), 1982 completed PhD Botany) later taught Botany to College Students at Agra College, Agra (1969-1970); K.R. College Mathura (1970-2011); Worked as Principal/Director Ess Ess College of Education, Dayalbagh, Agra (1-7-2011 t0 15.4.2014) and produced 15 Ph.D. students on various aspects of Eco-physiology dealing with saltstress, air, water and soil pollution. At present busy with my D.Sc. work besides engaged in writing books on the Cell and Molecular Biology of Plants; Plant Physiology and Metabolism and Nutritional Disorders in Plants. Associated with various National and International professional societies

Title: Impact of pre-treatments and ultrasound technology on polyphenolic compounds extracted from potato peels

Abstract:

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L: Solanaceae family) is an important food crop throughout the world and is widely used as a raw material to produce starch, potato chips, fries, flour, etc. Agricultural land under potato production has decreased throughout years in Estonia, being over 5.3 thousand ha in 2019. Majority of the food products utilize peeled potatoes, which leaves behind a great amount of potato peels as a waste. Effective management and disposal of potato peels is necessary to avoid environmental pollution. To overcome this, it is necessary that potato peel waste is used for value addition. Potato peels, a good source for bioactive compounds, mainly contain polyphenolic compounds such as phenolic acids, chlorogenic acid, flavonoids, flavanols and anthocyanins. These compounds possess many health benefits to humans. Green extraction techniques, such as ultrasound-assisted extraction, are expected to preserve the extracted compounds and retain their pharmacological characteristics. In this paper, results will be presented on the effects of different pre-treatment technologies, applied to potato peels prior to standardizing and commending ultrasound assisted extraction process of polyphenolic compounds.

Biography:

Alice Aav is a lecturer and a researcher in Estonian University of Life Sciences. She holds PhD in plant pathology. Her main teaching topics are plant-based raw materials and plant-based food technologies. Her research work is based on sustainable food production technologies and valorisation of agricultural- and food by-products using novel and “green technologies”. The main crop for her research has been potato. She has also worked with entrepreneurs, developing new plant-based food products for marketing purposes.

Title: The Organo-Zeolitic Bio-fertilizer: A New Approach to Plant Nutrition

Abstract:

The adoption of a biological method of plant nutrition has proved to be extremely efficient.  The method does not involve the use of chemical salts as used in traditional plant fertilizers.  These fertilizers used over some 80 years have had a deleterious effect on soil health due to the diffusion of the salts used which often leads to over-application.  The new approach to improve soil health and plant growth uses natural crushed zeolite rock and organic waste as a soil amendment. This material supplies nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium together with minor and trace elements which are essential and beneficial to plant growth. Zeolite minerals are well known to adsorb ammonium ions which are provided by the decomposition of the organic component.  When the organo-zeolitic mixture is added to the soil the ammonium ions are replaced by soil Potassium. The slow release of the ammonium ions is oxidized by Crenarcheota, a soil micro-organism that is now known to be the most prevalent ammonium oxidizing microbe in the soil environment.  This behavior provides a gradual accumulation of nitrate in an ionic condition that can be accepted by the growing plant.  In this way, there is very little access to nitrate to diffuse into the soil, and with phosphorus supplied from the organic waste and potassium, available from the soil. the three major nutritional elements (NPK) are present. As the process of nitrification, involves enzymes that produce hydrogen in the form of hydronium ions that are very reactive, releasing a range of elements from the soil which provide minor element ions, in trace quantities, required for strong plant growth. The organic component maintains an adequate supply of carbon which is lost in the long-term use of traditional chemical fertilizers. The presence of soil carbon is essential for soil health as its reduction results in loss of soil structure and water holding capacity, resulting in fragile soil that is prone to transportation by wind and rain. The dust bowls of the Midwest of the USA are a spectacular example of this effect.  Thus the adoption of the organo-zeolitic-soil system, in countries that benefit from the presence of economic deposits of zeolitic tuff, is a step forward in arable farming and the phytoremediation of contaminated land as well as the production of fuel crops on such land and the improvement of marginal farmland.

Biography:

Graduated from the University of St.Andrews, Scotland after a four-year Honours Geology degree course in 1959.  Gained a Ph.D degree from the University of Bristol graduating in geology and mineralogy in 1963. Joined Australia National University to work on isotope geochronology, 1963-65.  Continued this work during a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Leeds,1965-68.  Accepted Professorship at the Department of Geology, University of Florida, USA, and later at the Department of Environmental Studies, University of Virginia, USA.  On return to the UK  in 1995 became interested in natural zeolites which led to current work on biological plant fertilizers at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge

Title: Evaluation of quality protein maize inbred lines for resistance to maize weevil Sitophilus zeamais (Coleoptera: curculionidae) and other important agronomic traits

Abstract:

Maize is the most important crop in Ethiopia since it is a staple food crop which is widely grown by most smallholder farmers. The necessity to increase maize production cannot be over emphasized; in Ethiopia it ranks first in terms of production, productivity, number of producers and next to teff in area coverage. Subsistence maize farming accounts for more than 95% of the total maize area and production, with 75% of all maize produced being consumed by the farming household. Despite its high productivity, maize grain is a poor source of balanced protein for human consumption. QPM is a variety of maize with elevated levels of the amino acids tryptophan and lysine, which translates to a nutritionally-beneficial protein quality of double typical maize. This fact allows QPM maize to have an impact on the nutrition of families subsisting on diets consisting mainly of maize. Maize weevil is the cause of major storage loss and significantly affects household food security of the small-holder sector in Ethiopia. It can cause great losses to the grains, quantitatively and qualitatively. In Ethiopia grain loss between 20 and 30 % is common. Under severe infestations and inadequate control measures, maize weevil can cause up to 100% loss of stored grain after 6–8 months of storage. Although synthetic pesticides can control it, majority of communal farmers are resource-poor and have no means and proper skills to acquire and handle them. Moreover, pesticides are expensive and pose health problems to consumers due to their toxicity. Host plant resistance is user friendly and ecologically sound alternative as the technology is embedded in the seed. This study was undertaken to evaluate resistance in 28 quality protein maize (QPM) inbred lines against Sitophilus zeamais infestation and their important agronomic attributes, and consequently their value for use in breeding programs to develop resistant QPM hybrids. Susceptibility index (SI) was used to categorize lines in to different susceptibility group. Out of the 28 inbred lines tested, one inbred line (CML-142) was resistant, three (CML-144/144-7-b (F2)-4-2-1-1-1-1-1, POOL 15QPFS-693-B-2-B-#-B-B-B-# and CML-149) were moderately resistant and the remaining 24 inbred lines were categorized as susceptible to highly susceptible. Importantly, those inbred lines that are resistant and moderately resistant had better yield potentials as compared to the susceptible ones. These resistant and moderately resistant inbred lines showed considerable reduction in grain damage and losses for S. zeamais, suggesting that they contained genes that confer resistance to the pest. Correlations between kernel size, breadth and texture with some important susceptibility parameters were found to be significant, indicating possible influence of these factors together with others in determining the susceptibility of the inbred lines to S. zeamais. Identification of QPM lines resistant to S. zeamais in the present study offers an opportunity for developing QPM hybrid with enhanced resistance to S. zeamais

Biography:

Girma Demissie is an agricultural entomologist by profession and working for Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, Holetta Agricultural Research Center. He received his BSc and MSc from Haramaya University, and received his PhD from Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, India. Since 2002, he has researched on maize entomology at Bako. He was in charge of the maize entomology research projects conducted at national level from 2002-2011. From 2008 to 2011 he was served as country coordinator of CIMMYT funded “Insect Resistant Maize for Africa” project. From 2016 to May 2018 he was served as coordinator of ICIPE funded Integrated Termite Management project. Since 2017 he has also been serving as coordinator of FAO and PRC funded Fall Armyworm research projects. In addition to his professional expertise he was served as Director of Bako National Maize Research Center from Feb. 2015 to Feb. 2018. He has wide ranging experience in administering, leading and coordinating several research projects. Besides he has good skills in establishing strong partnership with various national and international stakeholders in obtaining grants, collaborative research work and capacity building. Dr. Girma has been doing substantial research on maize protection and authored or co-authored several proceedings and over 18 publications in peer reviewed referred journals.

Title: Plant Science and Plant Biology is the major industry for the development of health, basic need of daily life, create employment, generate income, stronger economy, reducing financial crises, global Poverty and hunger in the developing countries of the

Abstract:

The aims of the presentation consisted of Plant science, plant biology, health, daily life, employment, income economy, poverty, and hunger studied, and reported that Plant Science and Plant Biology are the major industries for the development of health, basic needs of daily life, create employment, generate income, a stronger economy, reducing financial crises, global Poverty and hunger in the developing countries of the world. Plant Science is the study of Plant growth, reproduction, evaluation, and adaptation as well as the use of plants for food, fiber, ornamental, and industrial purposes. In other words, Plant Science is the major industry of agriculture including Plant biochemistry which is the branch of science that explores the chemical process within and related to living organisms. Similarly, Plant Biology is a large branch of science that focuses on plants including, but not limited to, their evolution, life history, structure, and function. Plant biology is a wide-reaching subject, but some categories receive more attention based on their importance to us and our interests. In the light of the above study, it is proposed that. Plant Science and Plant Biology are the major industries for the development of health basic need of daily life, create employment, generate income, stronger economy, reducing financial crises, global Poverty and hunger in the developing countries of the world..

Biography:

Mr. Muhammad Usman, Former Director General of the Agricultural Research System, Government of Pakistan retired from service after a spotless career of about 35 years with senior-level experience in research and development of integrated agricultural production, industries, Agriculture & Horticulture, and bioenergy in a sustainable way. Mr. Usman is considered the senior scientist in the world, always participating in international conferences as a plenary speaker, keynote speaker, renowned speaker, organizing committee member as well as moderator of conferences around the world. Mr. Usman established "Prominent Agro Based Industries, Agro Based Industries, and Consultancy SDN BHD" in Malaysia and "Foundation for Rural Development in Pakistan", with primary aims to work on integrated agricultural project for Rural Development through improvement in agriculture and consultancy services to the formers at Malaysia.

Title: Screening of plant extracts for green synthesis of Ag Nanoparticles

Abstract:

One of the most famous areas is nanotechnology because its application is available for several research. Especially, metal nanoparticles (MNPs) can be developed for biofuel cells, ion batteries, medical field, and sensing device. The MNPs are nanosized metals (1-100nm) that have optoelectronic and biochemical characteristics. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are one of the most attractive materials because of various applications including pharmaceutics, textile industries, and agriculture. Green synthesis is integrated in production of AgNPs to sustain and save for environments. Therefore, the plant extracts for AgNPs synthesis are promising methods and low cost. In this work, we have tried to synthesize AgNPs by Thai local plant extract to apply for detection of heavy metal. Roselle, butterfly pea, and turmeric have been chosen to test the characteristics of AgNPs. For preparation of plant extracts, 10 grams of all plants are dried and boiled with 100 mL deionized water and absolute ethanol for 30 min. All boiled plant extracts were cooled down and filtered with filter paper. For preparation of AgNPs, 2 mL of plant extracts were added to 10mL of 1mM AgNO3 solution. The reaction (reduction of Ag+ ions to Ag0) was tested at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 24 hours by UV-Vis absorption spectra. In addition, Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to compare the images of the AgNPs obtained after 24 hours of reaction.

Biography:

Kitiyaporn Pongpratead is a lecturer in physical chemistry at the Department of Applied Sciences and Engineering. The educational background in chemistry and physical chemistry for bachelor's and doctoral degrees, respectively. After graduation, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Strathclyde in the UK for 3 years. She also got a research scholar for 2 years at Michigan State University. Then, she got a permanent job in Thailand as a lecturer at Khonkaen University, Nong Khai campus. Her research is about the computational chemistry of biomolecular systems for drug design. In addition, she works on environmental chemistry that involves wastewater treatment and wastewater analysis.